Agenda item

A report by Councillor Gold, Cabinet Member for Communities attached.

Chief Superintendent, Chris Hill of GMP's Bury District and Lynne Ridsdale, Deputy Chief Executive will be in attendance.

Councillor Bernstein formally welcomed Councillor Gold, Cabinet Member for Communities, Lynne Ridsdale, Deputy Chief Executive, Chris Hill Chief Superintendent and Kate Waterhouse, Chief Information Officer to the meeting.

Councillor Gold introduced the item, the Community Safety Partnership Annual Report and the Community Safety Plan.

Chris Hall, Chief Superintendent introduced his role and his priorities for Policing in the Borough of Bury. These priorities consisted of the right resources in the correct places and when a resident is the unfortunate victim of crime that they receive an excellent service from the Police. He showcased the ‘plan on a page’ document which is the Police roadmap to recovery across Greater Manchester.

Councillor Boroda questioned the Council’s perspective on why Community Safety should be a priority for the Council. In response Councillor Gold advised the Council adds value through organisation of the groups, the intelligence from Councillors and the local community, Neighbourhood Teams, Sixtown Housing, and the Hubs.

Councillor Birchmore stated that following engagement with local residents it is believed there is a significant amount of under reporting of crime due to a lack of belief in law enforcement. As Radcliffe has no police station and only a limited police presence. Councillor Birchmore asked for reassurances that the problems in some parts of Radcliffe have been recognised and plans are being put in place to address the issues.

In response Councillor Gold, advised the list was not exhaustive and resident feedback from the consultation has been used to inform the priorities. Again, the under-reporting issue was reported in the consultation and has been used to inform the police of the hotspots.

Chris Hill, Superintendent advised each town in the Borough of Bury including the Inspector for Radcliffe, Inspector Wright, produces a report on the hot-spots, repeat locations and the local team for Radcliffe are well sighted on local issues. Councillor Birchmore added that a drop-in centre for Radcliffe instead of a Radcliffe Police Station has been well received by local residents.

Councillor Vernon questioned how the resent Ofsted report findings had impacted policing. In response Chief Superintendent Chris Hill advised he is sighted and aware of the findings in the report. Joint working takes place to discuss issues where there is a recognised risk to a child. All concerns are communicated to the Local Authority and this ensures there is no delay in reporting. Superintendent Chris Hill provided a detailed update report on the improvements made so far and planned for going forward.

Questions took place regarding the statement within the Community Safety Plan of ‘Bury being safer’ and how this is measured. It was concluded that an update will come to a future meeting in the new municipal year to provide comparative data which demonstrates if this is the case.

The Committee discussed the incident which happened in Bury recently and what is taking place to reduce the likelihood of such an incident occurring again. In response Chief Superintendent Chris Hill advised work is required to improve reporting from the Taxi Driver Community and build confidence with individuals to report any antisocial behaviour.

Chris Hill Chief Superintendent advised the Committee that the Chief Constable asked all Chief Superintendent’s to visit each area and find a venue to speak to all local Councillors. The Committee were advised that this will be arranged soon along with a visit to each local authority to include mass police presence.

Further themes of discussion were around the following topics:

·         Drug dealing

·         Speeding

·         Lack of reporting; this is due to many issues, but Councillors and the local community are asked to report any issues so that they can provide targeted interventions.

·         Domestic Violence and incidents

·         Response times of Greater Manchester Police; this response time has now reduced to an average speed of 16 second for 999 calls and the average response to 111 calls is 2 minutes.

·         Officers out in local areas; the numbers of officers is to be increased and local work is taking place to target areas of high demand.

It was agreed:

1.   For the Cabinet Member for Communities to speak to officers about creating a Council system for monitoring the reporting of finding drug paraphernalia.

2.   That the Cabinet Member for Communities provides performance data which supports the monitoring of the Community Safety Plan at a future update to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in September 2022.

3.   That the March 2022 meeting should focus on response, recovery and resiliency in relation to the Pandemic

4.   To thank Chief Superintendent Chris Hill, Councillor Gold, Cabinet Member for Communities, Lynne Ridsdale, Deputy Chief Executive and Kate Waterhouse, Chief Information Officer for their update and time.